


two kings in a standstill

by elyteracy



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: (to say the least), Angst, Canon Compliant, Complicated Relationships, F/M, University
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 12:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17745962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyteracy/pseuds/elyteracy
Summary: Aaron and Katelyn's story, in eight parts ft. Andrew Minyard.





	two kings in a standstill

**Author's Note:**

> my new year resolution is to post one finished fic per month. This is supposed to be my january fic. as you can see, it's going great
> 
> [join me on tumblr](http://elyteracy.tumblr.com)

1\. the promise

"I'll protect you," Andrew said, fifteen years old, sitting crossed legs on his bed. "It'll be just you and me. Nobody else."

Aaron, his knees pulled up to his chest, pulled at the sleeve of his sweatshirt, hiding the scar on his wrist by force of habit. "Just you and me?"

Andrew's eyes were almost gold in the morning light, and Aaron, unused to having a brother, a twin no less, wondered if his own had the same color, like liquid sunlight on a lazy summer day.

"Just you and me," Andrew repeated.

Two kings against the world.

*

"Can I sit here?" A voice asks.

Aaron looks up from his phone. A tall girl stands beside his table. Her skin is dark brown and her bleached braids are tied up. Her smile is polite. She looks vaguely familiar.

"Do what you want," he tells her, shrugging one shoulder.

She sits and makes herself comfortable. Her pencil case full of highlighters and pens, her laptop is covered in stickers. "I'm Katelyn," she introduces herself. "I'm a -"

"Cheerleader, I know," Aaron cuts her off. Her name was enough to jog off the memory of where he'd seen her face.

The professor enters. She doesn't try to make conversation again.

*

Still, she sits next to him week after week. "Can I sit?" She says, always, and each time he thinks about telling her no, but ends up letting her sit.

"Why are you doing this?" He does ask her eventually.

Katelyn looks up from her notebook. It's October 3rd, she's been sitting next to him, twice a week for a month, now. She frowns slightly, confusion written on her face. "What do you mean?"

He indicates the whole room with a gesture of the hand. "You could sit anywhere else."

Katelyn smiles, her brown eyes twinkling. She leans her cheek in the palm of her hand, looking at him. "But I like sitting with you."

Aaron scowls, tugging at the sleeve of his sweatshirt. "You are not sitting with me, you are just... Sitting in the seat next to me, which just happens to be free."

"Well," she drawls, her lips, painted a cherry red, still drawn in her grin, "you haven't turned me down yet."

Aaron stares and stares. Katelyn doesn't stop smiling.

"Fine," he admits defeats. "You can sit with me."

He pretends not to look at her when she beams at him.

*

2\. the first clue

His neck hurt. It was too hot for a sweatshirt, and he kept reaching for the collar to try and get some air, but remembered the purple bruise at the last minute.

Andrew grabbed him suddenly, and Aaron flinched away, feeling like raw and scrapped from inside. Andrew pulled at his sweatshirt until he could see the ugly molten shape on Aaron's chest.

He stared a few seconds. The room felt heavy and Aaron couldn't breathe, like a weight was on his ribcage. Andrew let go without a word, eyes a dark muddy brown.

*

He's standing in line at the coffee shop, typing angrily to Nicky when somebody touches his shoulder. He tenses and immediately slaps the hand away.

It belongs to Katelyn.

Her brown eyes are wide. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she apologizes, clutching her hand to her chest.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, I just... I wanted to say hi." She smiles but it doesn't reach her eyes, a small crease still nested between her eyebrows.

"I don't like when people touch me when I don't expect it."

Katelyn makes a sad face, a face that Aaron despises. He wants to snap at her, make her hate him. He can deal with hate and anger. She reaches for him and wraps it around his arm, slowly. He feels like a wild animal, staring at her fingers curling around his arm, watching for any sudden movement. "I really am sorry," she repeats. "I'll be careful from now on. Let me buy you a coffee as an apology?"

"I can buy my own coffee," he mutters.

"I know, I'm not saying you can't. I'm saying I want to."

Aaron scowls at her. He can still feel the warmth of her hand on his arm. "I won't stop you."

She buys them both plain black coffee. Her lipstick leaves a purple mark on her cup.

*

Getting coffee together becomes routine. Aaron doesn't know why, but he finds himself leaving early every Thursday to catch Katelyn at the coffee shop.

"You've been going to class early," Nicky says, poking his head out of the kitchen.

"I'm getting coffee."

Nicky raises the pot he's just made. "We have coffee."

"No, this is liquid poison."

Nicky makes an offended gasp, one hand to his chest. Andrew stares at him. His gaze is heavy on Aaron's back when he turns away to leave.

*

3\. the funeral

He couldn't remember if he'd been once sober between he'd been announced the death of his mother, five days ago, and her funeral, which his rich uncle was paying for.

He was all alone. He was all alone with a twin who didn't fucking talk to him, two bottles of pills and the alcohol stash of his mother. Fuck her, that's all she'd left him. Bruises that would disappear soon, a drug stash that he'd empty soon enough and scars that would never fade.

In his drugged haze, he'd almost missed his cousin, Nicky. He hadn't seen him in years, he'd fucked off to Europe. Aaron thought it was good for him to get away from this shithole. Aaron wished he could too. The closest he'd found was to get away from his own mind.

Nicky was dressed in a black suit, his hair brushed back. "Hello, Aaron, Andrew," he greeted them with a feeble smile. He was always smiling. "I know this must be a distressing time for both of you but um..." Nicky hesitated, playing with the small ring on his finger. "I'll be taking care of you. If you are okay with it."

Aaron blinked a few times. He'd thought he'd hallucinated the words, it wouldn't be the first time. "What?"

Nicky's smile didn't falter, but it looked strained and didn't reach his eyes. Still, his words stayed the same.

"You're going to live with me from now on."

*

When the world becomes too much, when the idea of even being something, anything, makes him want to throw up, Aaron hides in the library. He used to swallow pills when it became bad, but he'd swore that off. Tucked behind selves, between books, lulled by the soft whispers of other students, he can pretend his life isn't what it is, just for a bit.

The fact that his family never steps in the library is an added advantage.

He'd come early. He'd woken up with his skin crawling and the need to get away, to be nothing but words for a moment. The library had barely been open and he's snatched one of the prized bean bags at the very back, close to the old European law books that few people ever came to borrow.

He doesn't realize he's fallen asleep on his human anatomy textbook until familiar footsteps wake him. Katelyn. They're muffled by the carpet, but in a dizzying moment, it hits him that he can recognize her footsteps, as easily as Nicky or Andrew.

He blinks at her. His glasses are crooked on his nose and he straightens them. She's wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt, face barren from her usual makeup.

"You'll get a crick in your neck, sleeping here," she tells him softly.

She's right, of course, but Aaron is nothing if not stubborn. He doesn't want to move, and he doesn't really want to talk either. Katelyn doesn't seem to mind. She smiles at him, a soft thing that makes Aaron's stomach feels weird and fluttery. "If you want to sleep, I'll wake you up before the old bat comes around," she says, referring to the librarian, and old stern lady.

Aaron shakes his head, smoothing the pages of his book.

He falls back asleep ten minutes later.

*

Andrew is kicking Nicky's ass at Mariokart when Aaron's phone rings. He tries to ignore it, but his curiosity wins over the skeleton drawn on his book.

 _if I have to learn 1 more bone I think_ Im _gonna cry_ , says Katelyn's text. Aaron can relate.

"Are you texting?" Nicky asks loudly and excitedly. "Have you made friends!?"

Aaron can feel Andrew's gaze on him. "No, and mind your fucking business for once" He glances at Andrew, who's still looking. "It's for a group project," he lies. "Nothing to talk about."

Andrew looks away, apparently disinterested. Aaron unlocks his phone. _I may kill someone_ , he writes, _and it might just be my cousin_.

 _Don't forget to make it look like an accident_ , Katelyn writes back, and Aaron can see her face in his mind, the mischievous smile that makes her brown eyes twinkle.

*

4\. the renewal

"You and me," a nineteen-year-old Aaron said, sealing his fate.

Andrew laughed. His smile stretched across his face like a garish slash from cheek to cheek. It makes Aaron sick to the stomach. "And Nicky," he added, in a singsong voice.

"And Nicky," he amended.

And the foul was added to the chessboard.

*

They find a Raven on the bus, one wing bloody and broken.

*

Andrew laughs at something Kevin says. Andrew laughs at many, too many, things nowadays, it isn't a surprise, and given Kevin's face, it wasn't something that was supposed to be funny. Aaron grits his teeth all the same.

He slams into Reggie two minutes later, his back loudly hitting the wall.

"Dude, I'm in your team, reign the aggression in," Reggie complains, rubbing his elbow.

Aaron stares him down until Reggie decides to just walk away.

When he looks back at his twin, Andrew is pulling Kevin down by his collar, grinning like a madman. The next ball flies straight into Matt Boyd's head.

*

Katelyn kisses him on the last day before Winter Break. She tastes like her cherry lip balm and Aaron doesn't where to put his hands. He can't remember the last time he's kissed somebody who wasn't drunk or high.

She pulls back and smiles at him. Aaron's heart at the way she looks at him, like he's worth something. Like he was actually wanted, like he hadn't been raised in the gutter, like he wasn't an ex-junkie.

Something in him wants to scream, tell Katelyn this is a mistake, that he's an imposter.

He doesn't. He lays one hand on her shoulder, his thumb brushing along his collarbone and the warm brown skin over her neck and tilts his chin up.

Katelyn laughs and bends down to kiss him again.

*

5\. the turning point

Andrew stood in the street, split knuckles and blood still on his face, cigarette at the corner of his mouth. He wasn't alarmed as the police passed the handcuffs on him.

He was standing straight, dressed in his usual attire, looking almost regal, like a Black King who'd done what he'd had to do.

He spat his cigarette on the floor and snuffed it with the heel of his shoe. "Take care of Nicky," he ordered Aaron before the policeman pushed him in the car.

*

He doesn't text Katelyn during the break.

She does, at the beginning. She sends him a few texts, a few pictures. Snow, a cat, a selfie with a beanie on her head. Aaron stares at the picture for a long time before he saves it.

After a week, Katelyn stops sending messages. Aaron opens his phone to type one back, to start the conversation again, or end it, once and for all. He thinks about typing _You're the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me (and maybe the only one)_ , or maybe _You deserve better, I'm only a rat from the gutter_ , or even, _what do you see in me?_

He doesn't send any of these and turns off his phone.

*

"You ignored me during Winter Break," Katelyn accuses.

She's cornered him in a deserted hallway. Aaron can't escape her but he doesn't want to. He drinks in the sight of her, heart aching, like if he looks hard enough, long enough, he'll be able to remember all the details of her face, the dip of her lips, the scar on her nose.

"You don't have anything to say?"

Aaron crosses his arms. "I wasn't aware it was a question."

Katelyn clucks her tongue, tossing her braids back behind her back. "It wasn't. But don't you have an explanation? I thought we were something."

Aaron purses his lips and shakes his head. Katelyn steps closer, raising her hand and he flinches away, years of conditioning, of memories catching up with him. Katelyn's face freezes and she brings her hand to her mouth instead. "I'm sorry, Aaron," she apologizes, her brown eyes wide. "Fuck. I'm sorry."

She steps back and doesn't stop him when he walks away.

*

6\. the schism

"You killed her! You killed our mother!" Aaron shouted, desperation and anger in his voice. He wanted to strangle Andrew, wanted to watch him feel the pain of losing the only person that was yours, even if they didn't care about it.

"I've told you, I would protect you," Andrew said, emotionless, like this was nothing, like he hadn't ruined Aaron's only chance at life. "Besides, she wasn't my mother."

Aaron threw himself at him but stopped suddenly when he felt something sharp against his stomach. "What the fuck," he whispered.

Andrew stared at him. "Don't touch, or you'll be joining her."

For a second, Aaron wanted to.

*

Nicky sits down in the beanbag next to him. Aaron kills another zombie on screen. Its blood splatters around when its head explodes.

"What's gotten into you?" He asks.

Aaron doesn't look away from the screen. "What do you mean?"

"You've been moping around."

"I haven't."

"Did something happen with that cheerleader of yours?" Aaron pauses the game to look at Nicky who shrugs. "Don't look at me like that, you aren't exactly discreet."

Aaron scowls and starts the game again. "There's nothing between us."

Nicky hums and stays silent for a few moments. It's so uncharacteristic of him that Aaron actually pauses the game again to stare at him.

"What."

Nicky leans back in the beanbag. "You're allowed good things, Aaron."

He wants to tell Nicky to fuck off. To mind his business, because he knows nothing, but he's seen Nicky cry at the kitchen table of the house in Columbia, a calculator in one hand, bills in the other, and Nicky knows more, so much more than he lets it be known.

Aaron gives him the second controller.

*

He walks up to her at the end of one of their shared classes. She doesn't sit next to him anymore. "Hi, Katelyn," he says, and she looks up, surprised. He isn't the type to say hi, he usually just starts straight into a conversation.

"Hi, Aaron," she says back, more nicely than he deserves. "Do you need something?"

He nods, suddenly feeling hesitant. His hand closes around the piece of paper in his pocket. "Yeah... Can we talk? In private."

She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Aaron fears she won't accept, after all, it's her right. "Sure, Aaron. We can talk."

They make their way to a quiet corner of the building, under a staircase. Katelyn leans against the wall and looks down at him. Aaron had never known what stage fright feels like until now. He tugs at the sleeves of his sweatshirt nervously, the silence between them tense and heavy.

"The last girl I dated, I did it because she was a drug dealer," he blurts out and winces right away. He pulls harder on his sleeve, like maybe covering the scar there, making sure the world never sees it, will also conceal the dirty parts of him. "That wasn't what I meant to say."

"What did you mean to say then?" Katelyn asks, voice softer than it has any right to be. Aaron doesn't deserve it.

"I like you," he mumbles, staring at his feet. "I like you and I've never felt that before and I don't know what to do with this feeling.

Katelyn's hands cradle his face, gently nudging him to look up. "You should have told me that from the start, Aaron, I would have understood." Her thumbs brush the skin of his cheekbones. "I like you too, and I'd like to date you."

Aaron wonders what he's done in a previous life to deserve her, because whatever that was, it sure as fuck wasn't in this one. He feels like an art thief, like he'd stolen the Mona Lisa from the Louvres and ran away with it.

"Okay," he says softly, and the smile on Katelyn's face is worth everything.

*

7\. the death

Aaron watched the body on the floor with a detached horror and a grim feeling of satisfaction. Andrew was laughing and laughing, like all of this was a sick, sick joke, and there was a scream trapped somewhere inside Aaron.

Racquet in hand like a scepter, he was a King who'd just finished an execution.

*

"Am I evil?"

"You're only human," Katelyn tells him, brushing his cheek. "Sometimes humans do bad things for good reasons."

"I killed a man, Katelyn."

Her eyes are dark when she looks at him. "You killed a monster."

Aaron remembers a story Kevin has explained once about the Valkyries, ethereal women who bring fallen warriors to Valhalla. It seems like a lifetime ago now.

Katelyn may be his Valkyries, he thinks and then laughs. It scraps his throat and his lungs, coming out bitter and hollow. Tears stain his cheeks.

He isn't a warrior. He's just a kid who wants to stop time.

But Katelyn stays nonetheless, fallen warrior or not, and time continues its course.

*

Katelyn rubs her shoulder like she does when she's afraid. "I can't be collateral damage, Aaron. I love you, but I can't fear that your brother will find us every time we talk. I want to enjoy my time with you, and right now I can't."

Aaron's heart feels like its pressing against his tongue like he's going to vomit it, bloody and aching on the floor of the chemistry lab. "You don't get it, Kate, he's crazy. Andrew's crazy, this isn't... He doesn't understand, he doesn't care. He doesn't care about anything."

Katelyn stands up straighter, crossing her arms. "He cares and you know what, _who_ , he cares about. Use it."

That's when it clicks. "Neil. He's the one who convinced you to do this," he snarls. "I'm going to fucking kill him."

Katelyn grabs his shoulders, her grip so tight it hurts. "He only helped me make the final step. This war between you and Andrew ends now, or this, us, will be the thing to end."

*

8\. the resolution

They stare at each other, standing opposite, like two kings in a standstill.

"I'd do it again," Aaron says.

Andrew blows a cloud of smoke, then throws his cigarette on the floor, stepping on it.

"And I'd do it again."


End file.
